Capitol Hill Blue Forums Hot Topics & Breaking News The RoundTable Roundtable for March 2016

If I had known where you went after you disappeared here I would have read more of your stuff.
Glad you are back but be patient, because this stuff can take time.
A friend of mine has a "group" on Facebook called "David's Snarky Politics Place" and he has 11,000 subscribers but he's been feverishly working on it since Facebook began...what year was that again? 2003? So he's been at it for 13 years. He only really started taking off right after Obama's reelection.

I got him to sign up here but he hasn't posted all that much yet.
Maybe if he does it will stimulate things a little.
RR hasn't been the same since so many folks left for social media so I treasure every single member and keep hoping more of them post.

In the days when I wrote a piece, which we called a column, at least once a week for CHB I don’t recall the word “blogger” being a serious term for any bona fide journalists. They usually wrote columns for print publications. Then those and other followed CHB’s ground breaking trail to the Internet, they too put their papers online, free at first; but now many of them like the NYT and even local papers charge if you want to view more than 10 articles a month. Columnists still called themselves columnists. Sometime between then and now blogger became respectable in journalism circles.

Even though I doubt well known NYT columnists like Dowd, Brooks, Friedman, Krugman, and Brooks want to call themselves bloggers, they are no more relevant than online only bloggers like Digby on Salon (a favorite of mine) http://www.salon.com/writer/heather_digby_parton/

Daily Beast still uses the term Columnist and has three regulars. However mostly the terms are used interchangeably.

In 2008, not long ago, but a generation ago in terms of cyberspace, The Huffington Post was considered a blog, number one on a list of many other blogs I’ve never heard of.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs

People like Dowd, Brooks, Friedman, Krugman, and Brooks ARE columnists. You and I Hal, are bloggers.

Dowd, Brooks, Friedman, Krugman, and Brooks write facts to a news story, you and I, Hal, write opinions about said facts.

Generally the NYT columnists write opinions along with fact. Remember when such columns were called OpEds because they appeared on the page opposite the editorial page where a newspaper published opinions approved by the editorial board.

My point is that there has been an evolution of respectability for many bloggers.

Some started with their own blogs, and ended up being featured on high readership websites. Another favorite in addition to Digby is Dahlia Lithwick on Slate. Her most recent “The Reverse Bartleby” about Garland can become the ninth Supreme Court justice is very clever.

http://www.slate.com/authors.dahlia_lithwick.html

I’m not delusional enough to think my http://halbrown.org will propel me onto the lofty platform such writers deserve.

Isn't your column featured on a nationally known outlet? You never know, you might have a second career soon...

Barbara Walters worked until the age of 84.

As long as I have fun writing and a few people like reading what I write, it’s enough for me. Anything else that comes of it is gravy.

I like reading something outrageous like Trump wanting women who get abortions to go to jail, and then posting my reaction on http://halbrown.org as I just did...

I agree with Hal about the evolution of the blogger and the increase (however small) in respectability, and I also contend that with that respectability comes an implied sense of responsibility incumbent upon all would be entrants into the blogosphere.

In other words, to all prospective bloggers, now hear this: It's not just a fun hobby anymore, and your words might just, if properly nurtured, have real impact, because more people are paying more attention to you guys than they did "in the olden days" (four years ago-LOL).

Just remember, YouTube wasn't taken seriously "in the olden days" but there are now YouTube celebrities who are enjoying lush real estate in the Hollywood Hills, because they posted extremely popular eight minute clips, about everything from cats to applying for a job, to DIY tips and hints, to political opinion.

Cenk Uygur started on YouTube.
Now he's fielding interviews with presidential candidates and getting financing from venture capitalists.

And making a handsome living.

A rookie police officer pulled a biker over for speeding and had the following exchange:
• Officer: May I see your driver's license?
• Biker: I don't have one. I had it suspended when I got my 5th DUI.
• Officer: May I see the owner's card for this vehicle?
• Biker: It's not my bike. I stole it.
• Officer: The motorcycle is stolen?
• Biker: That's right. But come to think of it, I think I saw the owner's card in the tool bag when I was putting my gun in there.
Officer: There's a gun in the tool bag?
• Biker: Yes sir. That's where I put it after I shot and killed the dude who owns this bike and stuffed his dope in the saddle bags.
• Officer: There's drugs in the saddle bags too?!?!?
• Biker: Yes, sir. Hearing this, the rookie immediately called his captain. The biker was quickly surrounded by police, and the captain approached the biker to handle the tense situation:
• Captain: Sir, can I see your license?
• Biker: Sure. Here it is. It was valid.
• Captain: Who's motorcycle is this?
• Biker: It's mine, officer. Here's the registration.
• Captain: Could you slowly open your tool bag so I can see if there's a gun in it?
• Biker: Yes, sir, but there's no gun in it. Sure enough, there was nothing in the tool bag.
• Captain: Would you mind opening your saddle bags? I was told you said there's drugs in them.
• Biker: No problem. The saddle bags were opened; no drugs.
• Captain: I don't understand it. The officer who stopped you said you told him you didn't have a license, stole this motorcycle, had a gun in the tool bag, and that there were drugs in the saddle bags.
• Biker: Yeah, I'll bet he told you I was speeding, too.

I think the Daily Kos offers the best chance to be “discovered” since when you post a piece, for a period of time it appears on the opening page. I always have an image, because I think that gets people attention. It think it helps to have a provocative title.

I also think it’s important to keep what I write short and to the point. A high snark and sarcasm level (SSL) is preferable to dry opinion.

My most recent is :

Will Trump Send Women and Abortion Dcotors to Prison for Life